Review by rramsey718 
UPDATED: 126 days ago
member for 7.5 years, 6 visits, last login: 126 days ago
 Powder Springs,Cobb,GA
 $175 per month (24 month contract)
 about 3 days
 "Fast, internet service, VOIP telephony is clear and solid"
 "intermittent issues wtih dropouts or maintenance in local area over the last 12 or so"
 "Given the choices here in Atlanta, Comcast provides the best value/ Speed vs cost and reliablity. AT&T can't touch em."
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Install Co-ordination:
Connection Reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Note #01, the $175 is the Comcast triple play, HD with two receivers and three premium channels. Internet by itself is 50 bucks (incl modem lease).
Note #02, I work as a technician for Verizon. Verizon services are not available in the Atlanta area. I have been in telecommunications for 28 years as a technician, trainer,manager and consultant and am back to being a technician.
Note #03, Current home setup, Belkin N1-Extreme Gaming Router, 6Meg CableModem Service (though Comcast has upgraded that at no additional cost to me from initial service installation). I have four desktop PC's and up to 3 Laptops online at any given time in my home.
In making my internet choice, I considered various DSL brands (Earthlink, Bellsouth to name a couple), Charter and Comcast. I had to go with Bellsouth (AT&T today) DSL service. It was slow (the 1.5 meg service but good luck getting that back in the 90's or even today). Once Comcast made their service available in my neighborhood, I jumped on it. From day one, it has been faster than anything AT&T could give me.
The price back in 97 was 42.50 + modem lease of $3.00 for the 6 meg service. the 8 meg service was 57.50 but I was cheap.... (note, this price assumed you were a Comcast cable customer) It's about $50.00 today, with modem lease. They do have specials too but I don't qualify for them anymore.
I have been a Comcast customer in Atlanta for 12 or so years for internet. Initially, the service was spotty and speeds slow/unstable and subject to frequent outages (boy did the wife let me know when it went down....) Today, I get up to 25mbs downloads/4mbs uploads, but that naturally varies. The internet quality is generally reliable and I am overall very satisfied with my Internet Service.
I have had intermittent issues that seem to happen on an annual basis (just had one this week, resolved today) where my IP based service (Internet/Phone) drops and comes back. Over the years Comcast has replaced the coax from the street distribution box to my home three times (today in fact with cable twice the diameter (Copper center diameter) as the old cable.). They replaced the cable from the head end to the distribution box once and replaced the modem 4 times. these issues happen about once a year, in the summer and generally take about two days for Comcast to get a tech out on site. Early in my experience (97 - 2001), this has taken up to 10 days to resolve leading to an increased blood pressure on my part.
In most cases, the technicians that came out to the site were competent concerned about the service and wanting to get if fixed. In some cases, they went above what was probably necessary to fix the problem, just to make sure they resolved the problem.
Telephone Customer service via telephone has improved vastly in the last 7 years as they have tech support either in the US or Canada it seems. I worked with a tech support guy two nights ago, trouble shooting was quick, he saw the same thing I did and issued the dispatch for first available time (2 days). Back in the late 90's when I first got the cable modem service, there just wasn't a sense of urgency in getting my issues resolved and no follow up.
Order processing for my latest changes with Comcast went very well and very smoothly. Install dates were met and completed. They do call before they come out and if you don't answer the phone, they will cancel a dispatch. That happened to me, and though I was upset, it was my own fault for not answering.
The best experience I had was a technician very methodically troubleshooting the issue, testing at several points and fixing multiple issues that impacted not only me but others on the street.
THe worst experience I had was when my internet/phone service went out for six days and there was just no follow up from customer service (this was back in 2002-2004) on dispatch dates or status updates.
Given that my account is residential, there is no proactive updates by their customer service like there is in the business world where you have actual SLA (Service level Agreements).
Since Verizon does not have their fiber based (FIOS) services in Georgia, Comcast and AT*T are really the only game in town. Comcast wins for me.
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